This project was begun in the previous fiscal year. It involves collection of clinical information and blood samples for genotyping in highly inbred families in Syria from families with many members affected with cleft lip and palate. Cooperation with Syrian local investigators and a month long visit to Syria by Dr. Wyszynski have resulted in collection of over 20 large pedigrees suitable for linkage analysis by the technique of homozygosity mapping. Data collection is ongoing. A 10 cM homozygosity mapping genome scan has been completed with no positive results. A collaboration with Dr. Terri Beaty of JHUSPH has been initiated to increase power. Our samples from Syria will be genotyped at CIDR along with Dr. Beaty?s samples from several other sites and collaborative linkage analyses will be performed during the upcoming fiscal year.